Japanese Electric Cars to set standard for recharging technology

By Alborz Fallah | March 16th, 2010

Yesterday was an interesting day at CarAdvice, without planning to we published seven articles on electric or hybrid vehicles. This was a rather interesting event simply as it signified just how far Electric and Hybrid vehicles have come in the last few years.

One of the problems electric vehicles will face is having an agreed protocol on recharging infrastructure. This is already rectified in Japan with Tokyo Electric Power and Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) developing the protocol some four years ago. The Japanese culture for advancement meant the protocol was agreed to as the standard and quickly adopted by other manufacturers.

Now it’s up to the rest of the world to either come up with a better protocol or quickly accept the Japanese devised technology to allow for infrastructure development.

Not that Japan’s automakers are leaving this to chance, a campaign has started in the United States to make Japanese recharging technology the global standard.

The idea is to make sure that all high-speed charging points, which are essentially tomorrow’s version of today’s petrol stations, use the same technology and be compatible for all electric vehicles.

CHAdeMo, a coalition of 158 companies including Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi (who all use the same fast-charging technology), Robert Bosch, PSA/Peugeot-Citroe, Korea Electric Power and Japan’s larget energy company has began its campaign to bring the standard to the U.S. of A.

“What we need to do is make this protocol a standard outside Japan,” said Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co.

According to experts one of the problems is the lack of competing standards currently available to compare to. Partially a result of other automakers lagging behind in developing electric vehicles.

“There is no competing standard that is currently available,” says Hiroyuki Aoki, senior manager of international relations at Tokyo Electric Power.

In Japan there are so far over 150 quick-charging stations nationwide which can be used by the thousands of electric vehicles already on the road.

Speaking to CarAdvice recently, Dan Thompson (the man in charge of Nissan Australia) said lack of infrastructure in Australia is still the main problem for cars such as the Nissan Leaf.

In order for electric vehicles to succeed a wide range of quick-charging stations need to be readily available, given the limited range of current generation EVs.

The main difference between a home plug (which can also recharge EVs) and the fast-charging stations is the power delivery. The purpose made fast-charging stations deliver 50 kilowatts of direct current electricity at between 150 and 200 amps. This mean a recharge in a matter of minutes not hours.

According to research done by Tokyo Electric Power, the availability of these stations alleviates anxiety meaning owners are more likely to take their cars further even if they don’t end up charing.

“Just the fact that they exist has a placebo effect, it is a safety net that encourages electric-vehicle use.” Aoki said.

Ashley Sanders

According to Ashley Sanders, Mitsubishi’s project manager for i-miEV and a member on the Australian committee for electric vehicles, Australia is still in the process of examining needs for electric vehicle standards.

Should Australia adopt the Japanese standards?

Electric Vehicles:

jinsei

Go Mitsubishi and Nissan!

We need the japanese to work harder on their electric car projects.

Hopefully those fat bastards working for the global oil cartel wouldn’t lobby the U.S. federal goverment so much as to stop the Japanese this time.

The very moment they launch electric cars that can run 300kms or more, the ugly oil companies will be hit hard.
Smoov

I’m sure the car companies can already achieve an in excess of 300Km per charge. The problem is, if they introduce that technology now, there would be too much of a demand for the product, to the point where existing technology would be shunned, by that I mean current hybrids and current petrol/diesel fueled vehicles. It’s the same with other products, it’s always a drip feed situation.

Give it 3 years or so and there will be battery powered cars doing 500kms between charges. Once the charging infrastructure is in place, there’ll be no stopping the buying public. But the biggest incentive to go battery powered will be that no one will want to be the last owner of a petrol powered car, because by then, there will be no trade-in value for it.

With other consumer products, we don’t care about the value of items we are about to replace, as we don’t trade them in. But with cars, we do. And that will be the driver to the demand. We all will want to trade in, while the old car is still worth something. The longer we wait, the less value our old clunkers will have.
DGS

I think the standardisation of recharge tech for electric cars as the japanese industry is pushing is far sighted and should be adopted by the Australian government ASAP before non compatible inferstructure starts to appear.

The more countries that get involved sooner, the less chance of an idiotic VHS vs BETA situation developing
Honda Civic

I don’t understand what are the competing standards of Electric Cars. As per my knowledge as Electric Cars are at growing Stage. Automaker working to increase the number of KM per Charge And coming few years it will increase up-to 500KM per charge.

Lazybones

Its about having one plug that fits all, and standards of what voltage and amps each level of charging has. The trend is to have 2 plugs, one for trickle (home) charging and one for high capacity. I think already there are 3 different types already, not sure about the Japanese standard, but Telsla have their own, and Europe has one also.

The range and battery chemistry is still down to the manufacturer.

Shak

I believe we should happily adopt the Japanese/International standard. This means we will again become early adopters of a technology that will one day boom into a worldwide phenomenon. As always the Japanese will lead us and then the Germans will adopt the tech and charge ludicrous prices and then the rest will catch up. But the Koreans may catch up much quicker this time.

Lazybones

I reckon this race is going to go to the chinese.

But funnier still, i’ve just read several deparments of the British police are interested in using the MIEV.

Shak

For what mowing their lawns. I know that its a good car for city dwellers, but i just cant imagine it doing any hard police work. Im not criticizing it but the only thing it will do is make kids and teens laugh at the rozzers.
Lazybones

I was actually thinking maybe they were interested in its silent drive. So maybe an unmarked car in black equipped with nightvision. So the don’t give chase, they just emerge from the darkness like a stealthy night rider sorta thing.

paultan.org/2009/10/07/mitsubishi-i-miev-police-car-trial-in-the-uk/

Shak

ok. that makes more sense.

http://www.culvercityautos.com Used Cars in Los Angeles

This is awesome. Leave it to the Japanese to make lead the pack in automotive technology.
qqq

If i was running McDonalds i would be getting those recharge stations into each and every maccas car park, if you have to wait 15-30 minutes for a full charge, why not do it with a mouth full of greasy burger.

but we all know the rest of the world will adopt a standard, but some political genuis in victoria will certainly come up with a better solution than everyone else, and it will be ready by christmas – 2020 that is, and will cost billions of tax payer dollars.

Pauly

Just like Myki… and we all know how well that waste of money has worked out so far.

Good on the Japanese for jumping on this quick smart, the quicker we get the universal plugs agreed on the better.

However im going to enjoy my Petrol car for the mean time. When I can buy a hot hatch that has 500KM+ to a charge and can actually go fast for the same price as a current hot hatch… you will have me sold.

Until then… ill buy my time.

Cam

Actually, most (if not all) electric cars have more torque than petrol. Even the small electric cars can usually drag off petrol cars. Top speed is usually less, but anything above 130 or so is just showing off